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Weird problem I can't find any help on, PSU/RAM related I think.

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  • RAM
  • Blue Screen
  • Components
Last response: in Components
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September 4, 2014 6:49:28 AM

Hello all, I have had this problem since I bought my PC back in late 2011. If I turn my PC off for more than a few hours when I boot it back up all I get are BSOD that appear to be memory related (bluescreen viewer).
These BSOD happen randomly, could happen at the Windows login screen, or when I boot up a game, or even when I start a scan with my antivirus.

So I thought well maybe it's my ram, so I ran memtest86 for 5 hours without any errors.

Then I tried a few things, First I tried booting it up in safemode because maybe it was a driver issue, and well I still got BSOD's.

After that I tried things here and there I read online nothing seemed to work, I got BSOD after BSOD and that's when I tried flipping my PSU switch off then back on, and stopped getting the BSOD's

Still till this day I leave my pc in sleep mode when i'm not using it and I really don't want to do that anymore so I was wondering if anyone has an idea on what can be causing this. Is it my PSU?

I would like to add that I ruled out the MOBO/CPU because I upgraded recently, so those 2 parts are new in my pc and the problem still happens.

PSU - CORSAIR TX Series CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V v2.3 SLI CrossFire 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified
RAM - CORSAIR XMS3 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TR3X6G1333C9
GPU - EVGA GTX 670 FTW
CPU - I5 4670k
MOBO - ASRock Z87 Extreme3 LGA 1150 Z87 ATX Intel Motherboard
HDD - WD Black 1TB
OS - Windows 7 Home x64, Windows 8.1 Pro x64

More about : weird problem find psu ram related

September 4, 2014 7:01:39 AM

Well im pretty sure its your psu because you messing with it fixed it so its pretty clear.
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September 4, 2014 7:02:58 AM

could be a bios issue since firmware cna cause weird issue
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September 4, 2014 7:03:07 AM

Yes try that also.
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September 4, 2014 7:05:50 AM

legokill101 said:
could be a bios issue since firmware cna cause weird issue


I think you read it wrong, I can go into sleep mode just fine and come out of it just fine. That's what I do I put it to sleep I never shut it off.

Shutting it off for more than a few hours causes the BSOD issues on start up.

Also I mentioned I've had this problem on my old Mobo/Cpu so I ruled it out having anything to do with those.

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September 4, 2014 7:06:32 AM

When you upgraded your CPU/mobo, did you do a clean OS install? If not, I would try that or a repair install. Might also want to check your HDD/s - you can download and run Seagate's Sea Tools (doesn't matter what brand your hard drives are).

If the drives check out okay, try removing your GPU and see if you still get the BSODs just running graphics from your onboard IGP.
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September 4, 2014 7:07:15 AM

i relized that But is still could be a bios issue especaily because windows 8.1 does shutoff a bit difrently
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September 4, 2014 7:10:40 AM

volcanoscout said:
When you upgraded your CPU/mobo, did you do a clean OS install? If not, I would try that or a repair install. Might also want to check your HDD/s - you can download and run Seagate's Sea Tools (doesn't matter what brand your hard drives are).

If the drives check out okay, try removing your GPU and see if you still get the BSODs just running graphics from your onboard IGP.



Yeah Fresh install, I've ran the Western Digital program with no issues on my HDD. I forgot to mention in my post that I ruled out the GPU, I upgraded that too from my old build.
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September 4, 2014 7:11:56 AM

legokill101 said:
i relized that But is still could be a bios issue especaily because windows 8.1 does shutoff a bit difrently



The bios was updated on my old mobo and the problem persisted.

The Bios on my new mobo is already fully updated.

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September 4, 2014 7:16:53 AM

thenumberforty said:
volcanoscout said:
When you upgraded your CPU/mobo, did you do a clean OS install? If not, I would try that or a repair install. Might also want to check your HDD/s - you can download and run Seagate's Sea Tools (doesn't matter what brand your hard drives are).

If the drives check out okay, try removing your GPU and see if you still get the BSODs just running graphics from your onboard IGP.



Yeah Fresh install, I've ran the Western Digital program with no issues on my HDD. I forgot to mention in my post that I ruled out the GPU, I upgraded that too from my old build.


Do you have access to another PSU that you can try with your system? If all of your other components check out, your BIOS and drivers are all up to date, and you've done a clean install of your OS, you might try clearing your CMOS.

Since the problem continued past the CPU, mobo, GPU upgrade, it seems unlikely that they would be the issue. That would tend to leave your PSU as the culprit. Besides trying a different PSU, you could also try using a different surge protector/wall outlet.
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September 4, 2014 7:20:40 AM

volcanoscout said:
thenumberforty said:
volcanoscout said:
When you upgraded your CPU/mobo, did you do a clean OS install? If not, I would try that or a repair install. Might also want to check your HDD/s - you can download and run Seagate's Sea Tools (doesn't matter what brand your hard drives are).

If the drives check out okay, try removing your GPU and see if you still get the BSODs just running graphics from your onboard IGP.



Yeah Fresh install, I've ran the Western Digital program with no issues on my HDD. I forgot to mention in my post that I ruled out the GPU, I upgraded that too from my old build.


Do you have access to another PSU that you can try with your system? If all of your other components check out, your BIOS and drivers are all up to date, and you've done a clean install of your OS, you might try clearing your CMOS.

Since the problem continued past the CPU, mobo, GPU upgrade, it seems unlikely that they would be the issue. That would tend to leave your PSU as the culprit. Besides trying a different PSU, you could also try using a different surge protector/wall outlet.


Thanks for the response, All my bios/drivers are all up to date, I have tried clearing the CMOS as well.

I do not have another PSU sadly, that's why i'm here I only have enough spare money to either buy new ram or buy a new PSU and I'm looking for help deciding what is ultimately the problem, and if anyone has heard of anything like happening before.

EDIT: I moved recently have a brand new surge protector, and I've had my pc on 2 different wall outlets and the problem still occurs.
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September 4, 2014 7:32:35 AM

the one last thing you can try is a clean reinstall, and running memtest with one stick at a time
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September 4, 2014 7:38:24 AM

Do you have an overclock on your 4670K?
Run a stress test with OCCT and see how you do.
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September 4, 2014 7:43:33 AM

geofelt said:
Do you have an overclock on your 4670K?
Run a stress test with OCCT and see how you do.


Nah, everything is factory default atm. CPU/RAM/GPU

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September 4, 2014 7:57:33 AM

I just caught that you have three DRAM sticks installed on a dual channel board. That can work (defaults to single channel mode), but also may cause issues. Try removing one stick and run it with just two installed in A2/B2 (recommended), or A1/B1. Then try to replicate the BSOD conditions you experienced previously. If that doesn't fix it, see below:



If you want to nail it down as positively as possible without spending (possibly wasting) any money, I'd break it down and start from scratch. If you don't want to bench the mobo, you can try one step short of that by disconnecting everything but your CPU, CPU cooler, and a single stick of DRAM. Clear your CMOS again, then boot to BIOS and let your system run in BIOS for a while, then shut it down for a few hours, then power it back up. If no problems, then add in your other stick or sticks of DRAM and do the same thing. You could run MemTest again, but that would seem unnecessary considering previous testing assuming you tested each stick individually. If you didn't check each stick individually, I would go ahead and do that.

Then do another clean install of OS with just your boot drive connected and ODD/USB. After reboot, but before installing Windows updates, install the drivers that came on you mobo support disk. Start with your chipset driver, then add the others in with a reboot between each installation. Then download and run WhoCrashed (http://www.resplendence.com/whocrashed). Then add in the other components one by one. Then update Windows, then update all of your drivers from your mobo support page (http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z87%20Extreme3/?cat=Down...).

If you don't get any errors or crashes during this process, but the problem still continues, then replace your PSU. If you do get errors or crashes during the process, make a note of what was going on when the crash occurred and any error messages that show up. Then check WhoCrashed to see if it got a read on the cause. It might still be the PSU, but if it's a driver conflict it should catch it.
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Best solution

September 4, 2014 7:58:10 AM

Since memtest86+ runs fine, I soubt it is the ram.
Although, a 3 stick kit is unusual.
Check your motherboard manual to verify which slots should be populated with 3 sticks.
You could try running with only 2 sticks and see if that makes a difference.

At this point, I suspect the psu.

And, for what it is worth, I prefer using sleep to ram(S3, no hibernate) as a normal procedure.
The pc enters a very low power state in 3 seconds and resumes as quickly.
Electronic components get more stressed by power on/off cycles.
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September 4, 2014 8:09:21 AM

geofelt said:
Since memtest86+ runs fine, I soubt it is the ram.
Although, a 3 stick kit is unusual.
Check your motherboard manual to verify which slots should be populated with 3 sticks.
You could try running with only 2 sticks and see if that makes a difference.

At this point, I suspect the psu.

And, for what it is worth, I prefer using sleep to ram(S3, no hibernate) as a normal procedure.
The pc enters a very low power state in 3 seconds and resumes as quickly.
Electronic components get more stressed by power on/off cycles.


Oh yeah, don't get me wrong I prefer sleep however it really bugs me when I shut my pc down for a couple hours (Usually due to weather/traveling with my PC) that this happens.

http://imgur.com/lDV1TVi - that's all my manual has on ram. Anyway, I have tried it with 2 sticks put in the proper channels and it still occured.

I would also like to mention for 5-10 minutes after coming out of sleep or boot, the PSU has this high pitch whine to it. Not sure if it's important to note or not, I heard it's just coil whine and doesn't mean anything bad.


I guess I will try memtest86+ again, I believe the last time I used it I had all my sticks in, and didn't test them individually.

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September 4, 2014 8:22:37 AM

volcanoscout said:
I just caught that you have three DRAM sticks installed on a dual channel board. That can work (defaults to single channel mode), but also may cause issues. Try removing one stick and run it with just two installed in A2/B2 (recommended), or A1/B1. Then try to replicate the BSOD conditions you experienced previously. If that doesn't fix it, see below:



If you want to nail it down as positively as possible without spending (possibly wasting) any money, I'd break it down and start from scratch. If you don't want to bench the mobo, you can try one step short of that by disconnecting everything but your CPU, CPU cooler, and a single stick of DRAM. Clear your CMOS again, then boot to BIOS and let your system run in BIOS for a while, then shut it down for a few hours, then power it back up. If no problems, then add in your other stick or sticks of DRAM and do the same thing. You could run MemTest again, but that would seem unnecessary considering previous testing assuming you tested each stick individually. If you didn't check each stick individually, I would go ahead and do that.

Then do another clean install of OS with just your boot drive connected and ODD/USB. After reboot, but before installing Windows updates, install the drivers that came on you mobo support disk. Start with your chipset driver, then add the others in with a reboot between each installation. Then download and run WhoCrashed (http://www.resplendence.com/whocrashed). Then add in the other components one by one. Then update Windows, then update all of your drivers from your mobo support page (http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z87%20Extreme3/?cat=Down...).

If you don't get any errors or crashes during this process, but the problem still continues, then replace your PSU. If you do get errors or crashes during the process, make a note of what was going on when the crash occurred and any error messages that show up. Then check WhoCrashed to see if it got a read on the cause. It might still be the PSU, but if it's a driver conflict it should catch it.


Re-installing windows isn't an option now or the near future, I work on this pc it would take me too long to get it back up doing all this. I'm going to scan my memory 1 stick at a time in memtest while I sleep for 3 days in a row, and if I don't have any errors I'm just going to buy a new PSU and hope that is what the problem is because this happened since day one of putting my pc together in late 2011, and even through upgrading my parts the only thing that stayed the same was the RAM and the PSU.

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September 4, 2014 2:56:20 PM

Corsair is normally a decent brand. But, anything can fail.
The sound you hear may be an indicator of a problem.
See if you can't borrow a 500w psu or better to try.
Perhaps spending a few bucks at a pc repair shop will be worth it.
Or... Buy a replacement psu. If it works, send the corsair back for a rma and plan on selling it when you get it back. Possibly where you buy a new psu from has something like a 15% restocking fee.
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September 21, 2014 4:39:00 AM

Well it turned out that it was the ram. Even though I got no errors running each stick for up to 6h in memtest86, I replaced it yesterday and everything works as it should now.
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